Thoughts by Dr. Steven Bruns

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Job 9:33-35 and Seeking a Mediator

Job’s complaint throughout this book is that God inflicts evil on people whether they deserve it or not and there is no way to make a case before God that the punishment received is unjust. Here, in Chapter 9, Job cries out for help:

Oh, that there were a mediator between us;he would lay his hand on both of us,remove his rod from me,so his fury wouldn’t frighten me. Then I would speak—unafraid—for I’m not that way.

Job seeks someone who can bridge the gap between God and himself, someone who can remove the wrath of God from him, someone who can remove Job’s fear in the face of God. This someone would be able to speak with both Job and God and understand both of them.

This is a cry for Jesus, the God-man who does, in fact, know both of them and can truly speak to both of them–whose ministry removes the wrath of God from all of the world and allows humans to boldly “approach th’ eternal throne,” to quote Charles Wesley’s hymn And Can It Be.

People have longed for someone to bridge the gap between humanity and the divine all over the world and all across time. Jesus is that mediator. He intercedes for all who would ask him to do so. Thanks be to God that he is willing to listen and desires to be heard!